6:17 PM,
Jan. 17, 2014

Bob Lurz of the Consultants Accelerator, left, meets with Mike Van der Gaag, president of Rochester Professional Consultants Network.

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After Steve Royal took a buyout and left Eastman Kodak Co. in 1991 he decided to start his own business. "I had a number of interviews, and every one of them involved a lot of traveling," he said. "I had done some traveling for Kodak and I found I don't like it that much. So I decided to go into consulting instead."

As a management consultant, Royal can set his own hours, work from home and focus on the activities he finds the most rewarding. It's a familiar refrain in Rochester, where major employers have downsized and laid off knowledgeable workers for years, often after providing high-level ...